Noreen, I would love to sing the Irish lyrics, but I don't speak gaelic. I would like to sing 'Where have all the flowers gone' in Russian, as I believe that's where Pete found the story line for the song. Unfortunately I speak no Russian.

If I tried to learn any song in a language other than my native english, I'm afraid it would come out sounding like "gibberish". So even with a tremendous resource like the Digital Tradition, I'm still not able to sing this song in it's original form.

So even though some might find it "insulting to a beautiful song and tradition" when folks like me "continue to sing gibberish rather than learn the real meaning of the song". My choice is to either not sing the song at all, or to continue singing the song as it has evolved in my language. I choose the later.

Besides, who for sure knows that this song is originally Irish? Isn't it possibly that this song could have come from a yet unknown, older tradition?

Just a thought....Mike